Selected quad for the lemma: diversity_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
diversity_n	body_n	member_n	unity_n	542	5	10.1952	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54111	A brief examination and state of liberty spiritual both with respect to persons in their private capacity and in their church society and communion / written ... by a lover of true liberty, as it is in Jesus, William Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1681 (1681)	Wing P1260; ESTC R32173	13,519	20

divine Measure of Light and Truth in our own Hearts and live therein and shall we not have Unity with that which proceeds from a Fellow Creature In short the Saints Way is in the Light wherein there is neither Doubts nor Discord yea they are Children of the Light and called Light and The Lights of the World and can it be supposed that such should disagree and contradict each other in their exteriour Order and Practice in the Church before the World Oh the blessed Seamless Garment of Jesus where that is known these things can never rise But yet again The Just Mans Path is not only a Light but a shining Light Brightness it self Certainly there can be no stumbling It is also said That Light is sown for the Righteous then the Righteous shall never want Light upon any occasion And saith that beloved Evangelist and Apostle of our Lord Jesus Christ They that walk in the Light have Fellowship one with another 1 John 1. Whence it is easie to conclude they that go out of the Fellowship go out of the Light but if they that walk in the Light have Fellowship one with another what shall we say of those that plead being left to the Light to justifie their not having Fellowship one with another and which is yet worse who suppose People may Conscientiously and Justifiably Dissent within themselves and that by reason of the Variety of the Degrees of the Spirit and Grace that are given of God unto them as if the lesser Degree may dissent from the greater because of its not being able to comprehend it And to make this Principle more Authentick such tell us This is the Antient Principle of Truth and object How will you else be able to maintain the Quakers Principles The Fallacy of all which lieth as I said before in not rightly distinguishing between Diversity and Disagreement Variety and Contrariety for this Diversity hath Concord and this Variety hath Unity And it is a Blindness that hath too much of late happened to some by going from the one Life and Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ first to fall into Disagreements and then plead for it under the Notion of Diversity of Measures I would ask all such Persons who arrogate to themselves such a peculiar Knowledge of the Antient Principles of Truth or the Quakers first Principles 1st Whether they believe there be a Christian Body 2dly Whether this Body hath a Head 3dly Whether Christ be not this Head 4thly Whether this Head be without Eyes Ears Smell and Taste and this Body without Sence and Feeling If not Whether this Head Seeth Heareth Smelleth Tasteth DIFFERINGLY and CONTRARILY to it self And whether this Body hath a Contrary Feeling at the same time about the same thing And if it be true that the Church of Christ redeemed by his most precious Blood to live to him see with the same Eye hear with the same Ear speak with the same Mouth live by the same Breath and are led by the same Spirit where is this Disagreement Contrariety or Dissent about the things of his Church Qu. But the Members of Christs Church in the Primitives had different Apprehensions as the Apostles and the People gathered by them Answ Pray let me know who they were and in what Cases Qu. The Persons were PAUL and PETER and those Christians that differ'd about Meats and the Scripture is plain in the Case Answ The Difference between Peter and Paul in the Acts testifies the Weakness of Peter and the place justifies Paul's Reproof of his too great Compliance with the Jews in some of their Rites which makes against Liberty of various Practices in the Church of Christ and not for indulging them That Instance about the Difference of Christians as to Meats c. has nothing in it to the end for which it is alledged for this related not to Church-Order or Communion but Private and Personal Freedoms what each might do with respect to themselves that is they might make Laws to themselves in things that only concern'd private Persons and it centred there Here What I will eat When I will eat things to my self and for my self as a man having Power over my own Appetite This Liberty in things Private Personal and Indifferent makes nothing for Dissenting about Church Matters in things of Communion and Society and that also are not Indifferent as to eat Fish or eat Flesh or eat Herbs plainly is But necessary As to be careful and orderly about the External Business of the Church These are no Jewish Rites nor Shadowy Ceremonies no Meats nor Drinks that are Private and Personal where Weakness is apt to mistake That were an Unnecessary and an Vnchristian Yoke to bear but things comely orderly and of good Report that tend to Purity Peace and Diligence in things acceptable to God and requisit among his People in their Temporal Christian Capacity And herein the Apostle Paul exercised his Godly Authority and we find that not only those that opposed themselves to it as thinking he took too much upon him demanding a Mark of Christs speaking in him are in Scripture branded with Contention But the true Believers that had in themselves a Mark of Christs speaking in him were of One Mind and avoided such as were given to Contention for it was not the Custom of the Churches of Christ Thus were Christ's People of One Heart in things relating to their Communion Yet a little further They that have the Mind of Christ are of One Mind for Christ is not divided They that have Christ for their Head have One Counsellor and Prophet One Seer and Bishop they disagree not in their Judgments in things relating to him and the good of his Church they have one and the same Guide For the one Spirit into which they have all drank and by it are baptized into one Body leads them all Now to every Member is a Measure of the same Spirit given to profit with and though every Member is not an Eye nor an Ear nor a Mouth yet every Member hath Unity with the Eye with the Ear with the Mouth in their proper and respective Acts and they one with the other The Eye sees for the Mouth the Mouth speaks for the Eye and the Ear hears for both this Variety hath no Discord but in this Diversity of Gifts and Offices each Member is sensible of the other and moves and acts by one and the same Life Spirit and Guidance which is Omnipresent proportionable to every Member in its distinct Office It must be granted that there are Helps in the Church as well as that there is a Church at all and the holy Ghost has compared those Helps as is before mentioned to several Members and Senses of mans Body as an Eye an Hand a Foot Hearing Smelling c. All then cannot be the Eye neither can all be the Hand for then they would confound their Office and act disagreeably to the Ordination of the

be left to act according as I am free and perswaded in my own Mind in the things that relate to God lest looking upon my self as obliged by what is revealed unto another though it be not revealed unto me I should be led out of my own Measure and act upon anothers Motion and so offer a blind Sacrifice to God Answ This is true in a sence that is if thou art such an one that canst do nothing against the Truth but for the Truth then mayst thou safely be left to thy freedom in the things of God and the Reason is plain Because thy Freedom stands in the Perfect Law of Liberty in the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and in the Truth which is Christ Jesus which makes thee Free indeed that is Perfectly Free from all that is Bad and perfectly Free to all that is Holy Just Lovely Honest Comely and of good Report but if thou pleadest thy Freedom against such things yea obstructest and slightest such Good Wholesome and Requisit Things thy Freedom is Naught Dark Perverse out of the Truth and against the perfect Law of Love and Liberty Qu. But must I conform to things whether I can receive them or no Ought I not to be left to the Grace and Spirit of God in my own Heart Answ To the first part of the Question Nay to the last Yea. But now let us consider what is the Reason thou canst not receive them Is the fault in the things themselves Are they inconsistent with Truth or will not the Truth own or assent unto them or is the fault in thee that is to say Is it thy Weakness or thy Carelesness If thy Weakness it is to be born with and to be informed if thy Carelesness thou oughtst to be admonished for it is a dangerous Principle and pernicious to true Religion and which is worse it is the Root of Ranterism to assert That nothing is a Duty incumbent upon thee but what thou art perswaded is thy Duty for the Seared Conscience pleads his Liberty against all Duty the Dark Conscience is here unconcerned the Dead Conscience is here uncondemned unless this Distinction be allowed of that there may be an Ignorance or an Insensibility from Inability or Incapacity or a Dark Education and an Ignorance and Insensibility from Carelesness Disobedience Prejudice c. So that though thou art not to conform to a thing ignorantly yet thou art seriously to consider why thou art ignorant and what the cause of such Ignorance may be certainly it can't be in God nor in his Gift to thee it must then needs be in thy self who hast not yet received a Sense for or against the Matter about which thou art in doubt To the second part of the Question Ought I not to be left to the Grace of God in my own Heart Ans That is of all things most desirable since they are well left that are there left for there is no fear of want of Unity where all are left with the one Spirit of Truth they must be of one Mind they can't be otherwise So that to plead this against Unity is to abuse the very Plea and to commit the greatest Contradiction to that very Doctrine of Scripture viz. That all should be guided by the Grace and Spirit of God in themselves for the end of that Doctrine is certainty They shall all know me saith the Lord from the least to the greatest And I will give them one Heart and one Way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their Children after them Jer. 32. 39. And I will give them one Heart and I will put a new Spirit within you and I will take the Stony Heart out of their Flesh and will give them an Heart of Flesh Ezekiel 11. 19. And the multitude of them that believed were of one Heart and of one Soul Acts 4. 32. Is not this Unity too I will restore unto you a pure Language they shall be of one Heart and of one Mind and great shall be their Peace Therefore I must say to thee Friend What if thou wilt not be left with the Grace and Spirit of God in thy self nor wait for its Mind nor be watchful to its Revelations nor humble and quiet till thou hast received such necessary Manifestations but pleadest against the Counsel of the Spirit of the Lord in other faithful Persons under the pretence of being left to his Spirit in thy self by which means thou opposest the Spirit to the Spirit and pleadest for Dis-unity under the Name of Liberty I ask thee May not I exhort thee to the Practice of that I am moved to press thee to the Practice of If not thou art the Imposer by restraining me from my Christian Liberty and not only so but away goeth Preaching and with it the Scriptures that are both appointed of God for Exhortation Reproof and Instruction Qu. But are there not various Measures diversities of Gifts and several Offices in the Body Answ True but therefore are not the Members of one Mind one Will and one Judgment in common and universal Matters especially relating to the Family and Church of God And indeed there can't be a falser Reasoning than to conclude Discord from Diversity Contrariety from Variety Is there Contrariety of Bloods Lifes Feelings Seeings Hearings Tastings Smellings in one and the same Body at one and the same time No such matter Experience is a Demonstration against all such Insinuations So that though it be granted that there is Diversity of Gifts yet there is no Disagreement in Sense and though Variety of Offices yet no Contrariety in Judgment concerning those Offices Well saith the holy Scriptures of Truth there is but One God the Lord our God is but One Lord there is but One God and Father of all things that are good and there is but One Lord One Faith and One Baptism and his Light Life and Spirit is at Unity with it self in all what comes from the Light Life or Spirit in one it is the same in Truth and Unity to the rest as if it rise in themselves This is seen in our Assemblies every day and will be throughout all Generations in the Church of God among those that live in the lowly Truth in which the pure Sense and sound Judgment stands God is not the God of Confusion but Order Every one in his Order is satisfied hath Unity and true Fellowship with whatever comes from the Life of God in another for this precious Life reacheth throughout the Heritage of God and is the common Life that giveth the common Feeling and Sense to the Heritage of God Degree or Measure in the same Life can never contradict or obstruct that which is from the same Life for the common Benefit of the Family of God The Lord is the Vnmeasurable and Incomprehensible Glorious being of Life yet have we Unity with him in all his Works who are come to his